12 La Liga scoring records held by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo

Hardly a week goes by it seems without Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo breaking some sort of record. And more often than not, it's one of the two equaling or breaking the other's. It can get pretty confusing, so we've compiled the list of Spanish league's most important scoring records held by Messi and Ronaldo – and how close the other one is to breaking it.

Most La Liga goals, all-time

Messi broke Telmo Zarra’s record, which had stood for 59 years, in 2014 with goal No. 253 when he was just 27 years old. Messi is now at 321 career goals, with Ronaldo 2nd on the all-time list with 270. Messi also holds the records for most La Liga home goals and away goals.

Most La Liga goals per game, all-time

Messi might have scored the most goals in La Liga history, but nobody has scored more regularly than Ronaldo. CR7 is averaging an otherworldly 1.1 goals per game over his 8 seasons in Spain. Messi is tied with Zarra for 2nd place with a clip of 0.90 goals per game.

Most La Liga goals in a season

Messi scored an astounding 50 goals in the 2011-12 La Liga season, but Ronaldo fell just short of matching that record in 2014-15, finishing with 48 goals.

Most La Liga goals in a calendar year

Yup, you guessed it. Messi holds this mark as well with 59 league goals in 2012. Messi scored 73 in all competitions that year, also a record. Ronaldo’s career year was 2014, when he found the net “only” 38 times.

Most games with a goal in a season

Messi and Ronaldo share this record. Cristiano scored in 27 different league games in 2011-12, while Messi did it just one season later.

Most opponents scored against in a season

Messi and Ronaldo share this record with a third player: the original Ronaldo. Each scored against all 19 of their La Liga opponents in one season.

Most consecutive La Liga appearances with a goal

Messi owns this record, and by that we mean he really owns it. Nobody has even come close to matching Messi's 21-game scoring streak in 2012-13. Ronaldo’s longest streak was 10 games in 2014-15.

Most La Liga hat tricks, all-time

Nobody hat tricks quite like Ronaldo. Even though he’s played in five fewer La Liga seasons than Messi, Ronaldo holds the all-time record with 32 hatters, six more than Messi.

Most La Liga hat tricks in a season

Of Messi’s 26 career La Liga hat tricks, eight came in his record-setting 50-goal season of 2011-12. But Ronaldo equaled this mark with 8 hat tricks of his own in 2014-15.

Most La Liga games with at least 2 goals, all-time

Messi has scored at least two goals in a whopping 91 La Liga games. But Ronaldo is closing in on that mark with 74 such games. Again, in five fewer La Liga seasons.

Fastest player to 150, 200 and 250 La Liga goals

These records all belong to Ronaldo, thanks to that aforementioned ridiculous clip of scoring 1.1 goals per match. Messi, who is the only player to break the 300-goal barrier, will see Ronaldo snatch up that record as well in due time.

Most La Liga goals in El Clasico

Heading into Saturday's El Clasico. Messi currently shares the scoring record in La Liga's most important fixture with Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano. Both have scored 14 in league play, with Ronaldo next at 8 goals.

Across all competitions, Messi already stands alone with 21 El Clasico goals. Di Stefano is second with 18, Ronaldo third with 16.